My Christmas gift.....

.... is the invitation I received to compete at Ms. International. I am so excited. I was really nervous as I am in preparation for this show since the beginning of July. Now there are 9 more weeks and with the great news of being accepted, I got the right motivation to be tougher with myself and train hard to achieve a tighter shape than last year.

I will keep you posted with the evolution of my shape:)

Merry Christmas, everybody.

a few more Chris Zimmerman samples

Chris Zimmerman sent me more samples from our shooting in October. I have to publish them, they are awesome, he is such a talented photographer:)

Diet started

I am on diet now since 3 weeks. I will probably find out the results of the Ms. International invite request next week. I am really excited and nervous to find out if I can compete in this great show again.

Last weekend I have been in Turkey, Antalya where the IFBB Master's and Juniors' World Championship took place. My good friend Dagmar Fankhauser won the World Champion title in Figure Masters (over 35 yo). She was in an awesome shape (pic attached)and I had a great time, the whole Swiss team, made up of 4 people, got in the top 6, which is amazing.

Cross your fingers for me to get the Arnold's invite:) I am training and dieting hard:)

Back on the track

I am here in Switzerland, finally home and ready to focus on my prep again.

In 2 weeks and a half I gotta start dieting. OMG!!! Diet again, I don't know when the time flies.

But I am happy with my shape right now.

Check out a couple of pics made by Chis Zimmerman and my workout and interview at

http://www.rxmuscle.com/videos/iatraining/2246-alina-popa-trains-her-massive-legs-in-the-offseason.html

Thanks Dave Palumbo and the team at rxmuscle.com for helping me get some more exposure.

Atlanta

I am here in US in Atlanta, visiting my good friend Annie Rivieccio. They had this crazy 1 week in advance Halloween party and it was so much fun. I was costumed as a witch. For me this American celebration is very colorful, this whole Halloween thing. It is funny to see grown up people getting so crazy about costumes (and getting to be a part of them.) We didn't have anything like this in Romania. It was a funny party and I got to meet Aleesha Young who recently moved to Atlanta and she attended the party. She was in a great shape getting ready for a show in 2 weeks.

A couple of pics from our back workout today. We had fun together, unfortunately tomorrow I have to leave her and move on forward to my next US destination:(

I will be back soon.

Here are the pics I promised you, a few stills from the back workout I made Saturday.

Have a great week, everybody.

The Ms. Olympia is finished. Of course, everybody talk about the amazing shape Iris brought on stage. She was amazing, I found Yaxeni's shape spectacular as well. What I did not understand was Dayana Cadeau's placing in the finals, she was off.

I also think that Brigita Brezovac should have been 1-2 places ahead, she was definitely better than Tina Chandler and even Helen Bouchard, if you take the esthetic lines aspect. Unfortunately she was not as sharp as at the 2 shows in August when she won. A bit of more muscles filling up her frame and the crazy conditioning she had earlier this year and she will be a top 3 contender.

What was disturbing was the 2 women commentators at the bodybuilding.com live stream. Those 2 women didn't have anything to say about the conditioning, muscularity or whatever other detail of the girls' shape. Instead, they made useless comments like 'I never saw Iris wearing a suit like this' or 'Cathy's choice of hair style and bikini color are great' but not a word about the shape.... it is better for bodybuilding.com to live just images talk if they cannot hire someone more competent to put up a show presentation.

Ok, now the last big show is over, my prep goes on great, I am slowly starting to dial some quality in, I made a video today which will soon be available in the updates of my site and will later get some stills from the video. I experience some pain in my butt area where the hams tie in every time I train my hams with dead lifts. I hope it is nothing serious but somehow worries me since I gotta keep on training aggressive.

Have a good weekend everybody.

I just read on the internet that Heather Armbrust will not compete in this Ms. Olympia. I hope she is fine and there's nothing too serious that makes her pull out. 1 hour later I read that Lisa Aukland officially retires from the competitive stage. As Betty Pariso, announcing her retirement 1 month ago. This means there will be just 11 competitors on the M. Olympia stage this year. I wish IFBB would extend the invitations in case the athletes that finish top 3/6-depending on the event- are already qualified. This way we would be more girls competing on this prestigious stage.

Just got some pics from Tom Nine from the shoot we did after the Arnold's and I show you some. He also posted an interview on you tube which came out great, in my opinion:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kfJKPbBGPc

My prep is going on great for the time being. I am having great workouts and I am very motivated.

Kisssss

I just started the second phase of my prep. This morning I was weighing, at the peak of my offseason, 89 kilos (196 lbs). The workouts are now, as I already said, much more intensive and quality oriented; it hurts now in the beginning, as my condition is not so good due to lack of cardio, the muscles burn, but I love this feeling. One phase is over and I am one step closer to my goal. This year I want to have a better tighter package.

No new pics for the moment but looking through my site, I found a few black and whites from 2006, when I had that short blonde hair.... remember that???? lol ... I found them nice, they were taken by mattmuscle (http://muskelmaedels.blogspot.com/) in Düsseldorf and he edited them a bit, gave them a black and white kick, I wanted to post them as a memory from the past.

Have a great week, everybody:)

Offseason feels great. Big solid muscles and so much power. I love it. But soon it is over, 1 more week bulking and then I have to switch to a more quality oriented type of workout.

Did a short clip for my members yesterday and I got a couple of screenshots for you. The clip will soon be available in my updates.

Nice weekend everybody

And I started my prep for next year's Ms. International. I hope I get the invite again but this year I will have a longer and harder preparation to achieve a tighter physique, as I was told by the judges. I am in full bulking now at 193 lbs (87 kg). Took a few casual shots yesterday.

I will do my best to keep my fans updated with my shape and the way my prep goes on.

Hugs

Alina

I remembered I have a blog...lol. I cannot promise but I would try drop a few words every week. In the meantime I made my pro debut in Arnold Classic where I ended up 8th place.

My gf Rahel Ruch made a great pro debut in NY Pro in May where she finished 6th.

Check out her site at www.rahelruch.com